QB Hill Signs With 49ers

49ers sign Hill to 3-year pact

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, February 6, 2008

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Niners 3rd string QB Shaun Hill is all smiles as he takes over in the 3rd quarter and after scoring his first TD in the NFL. Minnesota VIKINGS defeated the San Francisco 49ERS 27-7 Sunday in a NFL game at Monster Park in San Francisco
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Niners 3rd string QB Shaun Hill is all smiles as he takes over in the 3rd quarter and after scoring his first TD in the NFL. Minnesota VIKINGS defeated the San Francisco 49ERS 27-7 ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen

QB Hill Signs With 49ers

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The showdown has been set: It will be Alex Smith against Shaun Hill in a heated competition to be the 49ers' starting quarterback.

Hill has set up the duel by agreeing to a three-year contract for $6 million, including a signing bonus of about $2 million and playing-time incentives that could push the total to $11.5 million, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Not bad for a man who didn't throw the first pass of his six-year NFL career until Dec. 9. That's when the former third-stringer made his 49ers' debut in the second half of the game against the Vikings after Trent Dilfer sustained a concussion. Hill completed 22 of 27 passes, and his 81.5 percentage broke a 39-year-old record for an NFL quarterback making his first pass attempt.

"We just finished the deal, and he's thrilled about it," Hill's agent, Bob Lattinville, said Tuesday night. He wouldn't discuss the terms of the deal, and the 49ers would not confirm a deal until all the paperwork is completed.

In his three appearances, including winning starts against Cincinnati and Tampa Bay, Hill demonstrated the type of accuracy and play-making skills that the 49ers had expected - but weren't getting - from Smith last year.

Coach Mike Nolan indicated after the season that the starting job would be determined by a competition in training camp. Because he has been given a win-or-else ultimatum by the owners, he can't afford to play favorites if he has any.

Lattinville said Hill decided the possibility of starting for the 49ers outweighed the chances for more money as a free agent.

"There's a comfort level with the coach and the club," he said. "That was an important factor. You don't know what could happen in the market. The 49ers could become enamored of another quarterback. Certainly there's more of an upside going on the open market. The key is where the best opportunity to start is."

Smith, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft, will have to fend off the first serious challenge of his young career against a player who entered the league as an undrafted free agent from Maryland.

Hill is banking that he'll begin camp on an equal footing with Smith even though the 49ers have a great deal more money invested in Smith, entering the fourth year of a six-year, $49.5 million contract that includes $24 million in guaranteed money.

"That's something that we thought about," Lattinville said.

Each quarterback will have the added challenge of adjusting to a new offensive coordinator, Mike Martz. "Mike Martz said he's going to base a lot on accuracy as a key component in determining the starter," Lattinville said. "Shaun feels that's the strength of his game."

Hill, 28, who earned $595,000 last season, was the most impressive of the 49ers' four quarterbacks in 2007, a season marked mostly by injuries and ineffectiveness at the position. His completion rate was 68.4 percent; Smith has not completed more than 58.1 percent in a year.

Hill's passer rating of 101.3 - albeit in only three games - was far better than Smith's 57.5 and Dilfer's 55.1. Smith's season was short-circuited by shoulder and forearm injuries.

Hill missed the final game of the season after breaking three small bones in his lower back in the game against the Buccaneers. In his three appearances, he played despite a fractured index finger on his passing hand. He recently underwent a procedure in which a small amount of bone from his wrist was grafted onto the finger.

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